To read the texts click on the texts: 1 Jn 2:3-11; Jn 1:1-18
The
prologue of the Gospel of John is an extremely rich text. Unlike Matthew and
Luke who begin their Gospels with stories of the birth of Jesus, the Gospel of
John begins with the pre-existent WORD and the relationship of the word to the
world. It is Word which is God and also an incarnate word, a word made flesh.
Thus the Prologue is concerned with the sphere of God, the eternal sphere and
the sphere of human beings the temporal.
Thus the
prologue makes two main points.
The first
of these is that the abstract, the incomprehensible, the indecipherable, the
unknowable, and the absolute mystery which is the Word and God, have become
concrete, comprehensible, decipherable, and knowable and a mystery revealed
because of the Word becoming flesh. However, this mystery is not as easy to
understand as it may seem. Many take offense at this. They want something more
spectacular; some divine figure, some hero or god-man, some fascinating,
mysterious being, able to impress everyone with the feats of might and glory.
But what they saw was only a man; a man of compassion, a man who claimed to
speak the truth. And they saw no glory here. But this is how God decided to
come. He wanted to be one of us in all our limitations. Thus no longer can we
say that our God could not understand what it is like to struggle against the
opposition, to have to flee to another country, to be betrayed by a friend, to
grieve the loss of a loved one, to fear suffering and death, to experience a
seeming absence of his father. No, our God has truly walked our walk; God's
Word of Love has truly taken flesh. Through this act of the Incarnation, God
and the Word have become Father and Son. God, the Father is revealed in the
Son, Jesus. Through this act, heaven has come down to earth and earth and
heaven are reconciled as never before. The incarnation means that human beings
can see, hear, and know God in ways never before possible. The relationship
between divine and human is transformed, because in the incarnation human
beings are given intimate, palpable, corporeal access to the cosmic reality of
God. The newness wrought by God in Jesus is so dramatic that a conventional
narrative of origins is good, but insufficient. That is because the story of
Jesus is not ultimately a story about Jesus; it is, in fact, the story of God.
When one sees Jesus, one sees God; when one hears Jesus, one hears God.
The second
point that the prologue makes is the response of humanity to the incarnate
Word. Since the Word is not a Word that is thrust on creation, but given freely
and in total generosity, human beings must respond to the Word in freedom. This
response is either of acceptance or rejection. One cannot ignore the potent
power of the Word.
The
rejection of the Word by Jesus’ own people while being a historical fact is a
rejection that continues even today. Darkness continues to try to overcome the
light. This becomes evident when we look at our world which is a world in which
corruption, selfishness, injustice, intolerance, and communal disharmony,
racial and caste discriminations continue to raise their ugly heads. It is seen
when people still concern themselves with only the desire to have more rather
than be more. It is seen when the concern to accumulate for oneself even to the
detriment of not giving others their just due overpowers us.
Yet,
despite this rejection of the Word, there is a note of hope and promise because
there continue to be people who will choose light over darkness and
selflessness over selfishness. There will continue to be people who fight for
justice and will never give up this cause. There will continue to be people who
will generously give not only of their wealth but also of themselves in
imitation of the one who became human and gave all. Those who opt for the light
can continue to do so because their openness to the Incarnate Word and all that
he stands for makes them receive grace upon grace from him. This abundance of
grace continues to sustain through the most trying times and gives them the courage
never to give up or give in, but to continue and carry on. God became what we
are, so that we could understand better what God is, and we could believe with
all our hearts that God understands what we are.
Those who
dare to accept the light and walk in its ways begin to realize that God himself
walks with them and ahead of them. They know that God does not stay distant
from them, remote and isolated; rather, in Jesus, God chose to live with
humanity in the midst of human weakness, confusion, and pain. This bond holds
true for all times and all places. To become flesh is to know joy, pain,
suffering, and loss. It is to love, to grieve, and someday to die. The
incarnation binds Jesus to the “everydayness” of human experience. The Word
lived among us, not simply in the world. The Word became flesh and the Word’s
name is Jesus Christ. This Jesus continues to be born in our midst even today.
When selflessness triumphs over selfishness; when generosity triumphs over
greed; when light overcomes darkness, then Jesus is born again and again.
>Thus no longer can we say that our God could not understand what it is like to struggle against the opposition, to have to flee to another country, to be betrayed by a friend, to grieve the loss of a loved one, to fear suffering and death, to experience a seeming absence of his father. No, our God has truly walked our walk;
ReplyDelete- Thank you for drawing this parallel to our present day lives. Often, I tend to treat stories from the Bible as just that – stories. Stories that I don’t often connect to my own life or the unpleasant happenings around the world.
Happy Last Day of 2015, Fr. Errol! Thank you playing a(n unbeknownst to you) major role in my 2015.
Kate